Translate

martedì 8 aprile 2014

Lombardy region approves referendum on brothels

Referendum on repeal of 1958 anti-brothel law

(ANSA)
- Milan, April 8 - Lombardy's regional council on Tuesday approved a
referendum on a partial repeal of the so-called Merlin law, which
outlawed brothels in 1958. The idea behind the repeal is to take
prostitutes off the streets and bring them to work in a safer
environment behind closed doors.

Those
in favor of the referendum, which was proposed by the anti-immigrant
Northern League, included Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza
Italia party and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, with the New
Center Right and the center-left Democratic Party opposing.
Center-right lawmakers said the issue was a ''battle to overcome an
obsolete and hypocritical law''.

Sponsored
by Socialist Senator Lina Merlin, the 1958 law was passed over
strenuous opposition from right-wing and monarchist parties. It
abolished State regulation of prostitution and made exploiting
prostitutes a crime.

Merlin
modeled her law on the example of French activist and ex-prostitute
Marthe Richard, who got similar legislation passed in her country in
1946. She also sought to incorporate the principles of a 1949 UN
convention against human trafficking and the exploitation of sex
workers.